he steps
which led from the gallery to the winter garden. Neither was the
panegyric bestowed by the ambassadress on Madame d'Harville at all
exaggerated. No words can accurately describe the loveliness of her
person, and the Marquise d'Harville was then in the first bloom of
youthful charms; but her beauty, delicate and fragile as it was,
appeared less to belong to the strict regularity of her features than to
the irresistible expression of sweetness and universal kindness, which
imparted a charm to her countenance impossible to resist or to describe;
and this peculiar charm served invariably to distinguish Madame
d'Harville from all other fashionable beauties; for goodness of heart
and kindliness of disposition are but rarely seen as the prevailing
passions revealed in a face as fair, as young, high-born, and ardently
worshipped by all, as was the Marquise d'Harville, who shone forth in
all her lustre as the brightest star in the galaxy of fashion. Too wise,
virtuous, and right-minded to listen to the host of flatterers by whom
she was surrounded, Madame d'Harville smiled as gratefully on all as
though she could have given them credit for speaking the truth, had not
her own modest opinion of her just claims to such homage have forbidden
her accepting of praise she never could have deserved. Wholly
indifferent to flattery, yet sensibly alive to kindness, she perfectly
distinguished between sympathy and insincerity. Her acute penetration,
correct judgment, and lively wit, unmixed by the slightest ill-nature,
made her wage an early, though good-tempered war with those vain and
egotistical beings who crowd and oppress society with the view of
monopolising general attention, and, blinded by their own self-love,
expect one universal deference and submission.

"Those kind of persons," said Madame d'Harville one day, laughingly,
"appear to me as if their whole lives were passed in dancing '_Le
Cavalier Seul_' before an invisible mirror."

An unassuming and unpretending person, however reserved and consequently
unpopular he might be with others, was sure to find a steady friend and
partial observer in Madame d'Harville.

This trifling digression is absolutely essential to the right
understanding of facts of which we shall speak hereafter.

The complexion of Madame d'Harville was of the purest white, tinged with
the most delicate carnation; her long tresses of bright chestnut hair
floated over her beautifully formed shoulder